first up, last year the united states was fifth in global competitiveness in a survey. this year we have dropped to seventh. let me show you where we are. after switzerland, after swing pore, after finland they recently had so many free market reforms in those countries after the netherlands and after germany. let me posit a wee editorial on why. first of all we have the highest corporate tax rate in the world, an unsolved fiscal cliff. business uncertainty over taxes, spending, deficits and political deadlock. what did we do four years ago and what's going to be done to stop this decline? we have cnbc contributor jared bernstein, and we welcome allison fraser, heritage foundation director of economic policy. i really can't stand that we are slipping in this rating. i want america first. what's gone wrong here? >> this is no surprise. as you said it's the fourth year we have slipped. we are in seventh place. the heritage index of economic freedom has shown the same thing. one of the major reasons is we have a deaf sut and debt crisis that washington is simply not dealin